Anderson Silva Knows UFC 168 Is For His Legacy
There have been a ton of questions about the motivation of longtime former UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva following his UFC 162 loss to current champ Chris Weidman. Many thought that Silva’s head simply wasn’t in the game, that he lost to Weidman because he didn’t take “The All-American” seriously.
And “The Spider” is willing to admit that at this point in time.
Silva will have his chance at redemption in the main event of UFC 168 on December 28. Speaking at a media day at his Muay Thai College in Torrance, California, Silva sounds re-motivated to prove that his legacy will not be tarnished by his rivalry with Weidman:
“Sometimes you have good days for working, sometimes you have bad days for working. My last fight was a bad day. I watch the last fight. And I see my technique and I talk to my friends and my coach and I don’t change too much. I train hard my mental because my mental was bad. This is very important for me. For my family, my coach, for my legacy, this is very important.”
“So the people, maybe in five or 10 years, the people say ‘my gosh, this guy changed the sport. For five years this guy fight for the best fight for the people.’ In Brazil, I have a program for kids and I see the kids, ‘oh my gosh, one day I go to fight because you changed my life.’ This is more important to me, to change kids’ lives, than to beat Chris Weidman.” – via MMA.tv
At this point it appears that Silva knows what he did wrong. It also looks like the questions about his motivation were legitimate ones as he focused on training the mental aspect of MMA for this fight more than anything else.
He’s going to need it, because Weidman is a cool, confident, and calculating titleholder. He doesn’t possess even close to the amount of flash that “The Spider” brings to the Octagon, but he does have thing that most of Silva’s other opponents did not: a lack of fear.
Fear or not, Weidman knows that he has to defeat Silva for a second time to truly solidify his title reign. It looks like Silva knows that his legacy is on the line for this fight, and he’s probably right.
Another loss will have discussions swirling about his pending retirement. After all, “The Spider” is getting up there in age at 38-years old. However, he’s still near the top of the food chain and could easily reclaim the belt with a vengeance at UFC 168.
Judging from Silva’s honest words above, do you think he is truly re-motivated to get back on track? And will that be enough to beat the undefeated champ?
